A Wellspring of Life

IT was the beginning of the summer season, "high season" for us with our new hotel. Our hopes for success, and even survival, in the new venture depended on a busy five months. But that summer was also a time of unexpected drought. Our central water source was a little spring that normally produced six gallons a minute, and it was drying up. Without adequate water for guests we'd have to close.

All that month I kept hearing about how one thing depended on another-and all of them were unpredictable, undependable. Early one morning, instead of giving in to the fear that was all around me, I took a walk through a grove of redwood trees at the edge of our property. I wanted to be alone to think. But I also wanted to pray, to calm my own fear, just as I'd learned to do as a boy in the Christian Science Sunday School many years before.

I found the peace I needed, and from it ideas for solutions, by turning to God in prayer. In the Bible, in Proverbs, we read, "Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it" (16:22). This "wellspring of life" is ever available, inexhaustible, pure. It's always there when we need it. As we understand more of the nature of God, the source of all substance, we learn that God is truly the source of all good. The Bible assures us that we are God's children, the recipients of His love. Our real Parent, God, denies us nothing that is good.

Sitting in the grove, I reasoned in this way. I prayed to know that because God is all good, He could not possibly withhold what I, His beloved son, needed. I knew that I could reach out to God with total trust that all my needs would be met. I prayed with my entire heart to be led only by God, and all my fear was destroyed. I was free to hear God's divine direction and see His goodness.

Speaking of God as Love, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals. It is the open fount which cries, 'Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters'" (p. 13). This surety of God's abundance came to me that morning. I felt God's love fill my consciousness. I prayed for courage to sustain myself, courage to press on. Walking along, I saw a tree I hadn't noticed before. Its size suggested it could be over a thousand years old. I'd heard that if a redwood is damaged or in danger of falling, it adjusts to compensate for the damage.

This tree was leaning far over and seemed sure to fall from damage done to its trunk many years before. Yet above its damaged trunk it grew in new directions, bringing balance and thus protection into its life. I thought to myself: What about me? Can't I grow and flourish as naturally as that tree? I felt a sense of protection and survival. I knew God had not forgotten me. I could feel His love all around. As I emerged from the grove, my fear had vanished. I knew God would protect me and our fledgling business.

Shortly thereafter, my staff found a new spring on our land. We hadn't been looking for it; it had just appeared to us. We ran up to see it. It was pure, safe, at a higher source on our mountain property. Its flow, combined with our original spring, provided us with ample water even in the driest times.

Everyone can gain the understanding that God's love is sufficient to meet the heart's deepest prayers. God is our true wellspring of life. Clarifying our understanding of and love for God as supreme good is the avenue of spiritual healing, no matter what our need may be.

They shall come and sing

in the height of Zion,

and shall flow together

to the goodness of the Lord,

for wheat, and for wine,

and for oil, and for the young

of the flock and of the herd:

and their soul shall be

as a watered garden;

and they shall not sorrow

any more at all.

Jeremiah 31:12